Inside Out Living

The last two years I’ve had the privilege of leading students from our church on a mission trip to Mexico. Both times I have been able to participate in a baptismal service with our sister church. What a blessing it has been to baptize some of our Spanish- speaking brothers and sisters. This experience has impressed upon me the common unity we have with Christians who speak a different language. Last year, after a couple of times of hearing our translator, Paul, translate my declaration of their baptism, I began to, with some difficulty, baptize them in Spanish.

I realized that it did not matter what language I was speaking in performing the baptism. I was baptizing a child of God and recognizing their membership into the universal Church. For no matter where or when Christian baptism takes place, “we are all one body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future. There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and there is only one God and Father, who is over us all and in us all and living through us all” (Eph. 4:4-6).

Right now you and I are living as foreigners or aliens in this world. We long for the day when our Savior will call us home. The Israelites taking possession of the Promised Land can be viewed as a picture of our future entrance into Heaven. Their time in the wilderness then would be parallel to our time in this broken and fallen world. Their crossing of the Jordan River the image of Christian baptism, and then the receiving of the Promised Land is like our receiving of God’s blessings in Heaven.

In today’s reading we see how the remaining tribes of Israel receive their allotment of land. It was not based on their requests or wishes, but it was solely based on God’s guiding of their casting lots.

As I ponder how this parallels the blessings God has in store for us, his children, I realize three truths. First, I will not be able to tell God what blessing or reward I want. Second, the decision to bless is entirely the Lord’s sovereign choice. And third, no matter what blessing the Lord gives, it will be absolutely amazing and perfect in every way.